They may never be able to fill a stadium for a rock concert, but computers are making inroads in the music industry, capable of producing songs--and convincingly so--as illustrated at the South by Southwest festival in Texas. Already, an album featuring eight tracks has been produced entirely with artificial intelligence, an unprecedented feat. "I Am AI" was released last fall by YouTube star Taryn Southern, who doesn't know how to play any instruments. "For my first music video in 2017, I had a lot of friction as a non-musician," the young artist told a panel discussion on Sunday at the festival running from March 8-17. "I wrote lyrics, I had a melodic line but it was difficult to compose and record the actual music."

The world's first robot designed to carry out unbiased job interviews is being tested by Swedish recruiters. But can it really do a better job than humans? Measuring 41cm (16in) tall and weighing 35kg (77lbs) she's at eye level as she sits on top of a table directly across from the candidate she's about to interview. Her glowing yellow face tilts slightly to the side. Then she blinks and smiles lightly as she poses her first question: "Have you ever been interviewed by a robot before?"

Can artificial intelligence really be used to help make us more conscious? Even spiritually, emotionally and psychologically evolved?

These kinds of artificial intelligence programs -- available for nearly a decade -- are becoming more widespread as news organizations turn to them to produce stories, personalize news delivery and in some cases sift through data to find important news. Tobi wrote on vote results for each of Switzerland's 2,222 municipalities, in both French and German, for the country's largest media group, according to a paper presented last month at the Computation Journalism conference in Miami. A similar automated program called Heliograf has enabled The Washington Post daily to cover some 500 election races, along with local sports and business, since 2014. "We've seen a greater acceptance of the potential for artificial intelligence, or robo-journalism, in newsrooms around the world," said Damian Radcliffe, a University of Oregon professor who follows consumer trends and business models for journalism. "These systems can offer speed and accuracy and potentially support the realities of smaller newsrooms and the time pressures of journalists."

Marcus is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, quite a mouthful.

Apple has confirmed its next major event, with a major launch later this month. The event will happen on 25 March, the company announced, alongside a teaser that made heavy reference to films. The announcement does not give away any details of what the company is getting ready to launch at the event. But it appears to confirm one major rumour about what is coming. We'll tell you what's true.

Details about the highly anticipated augmented reality (AR) game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, have been revealed by the makers, who also created Pokémon Go. Developer Niantic partnered with Warner Brothers Interactive to make the Harry Potter game, using its AR expertise to bring wizards and mythical beasts into the real world. Images of the gameplay and several teaser videos were shared through the game's website, although its release date was not revealed. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

Ecrett Music is an AI-powered tool that generates unique music soundtracks for videos. Its creations are royalty free and sound surprisingly natural, and access to the tool costs just a few dollars a month. It's a boon for YouTubers, but it's also slightly unsettling – art is supposed to be the realm where human ingenuity wins out over machine efficiency. Could Ecrett Music, through its affordability and convenience, put composers of incidental music out of work? "I believe that AI will help human musicians, not put them out of work," says Ecrett Music's founder, Daigo Kusunoki.

Smart speakers are so popular the UK is using them to help calculate inflation. Every year, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) adds top consumer products to its "basket of goods," a collection of goods and services that indicates how people are spending their money. Annually, popular items are added, and passé products tossed. So while smart speakers made the cut, hi-fi speaker systems got the axe. In 2015, ONS added music streaming services to the basket.